I have made wine way back in pre-recorded history, but soon realized that I could usually buy better wine than I could make and stuck with brewing beer, ciders, and meads.

But I saw Selection Argentine Malbec on sale at Austin Homebrew, and I have to admit, a good Argentine Malbec is hard to find here, and is very, very good. It helps that tomorrow is my states 50 state sale so I am very tempted.

Has anyone made this wine from this kit?

I have never made wine from this type of kit, so I'm wondering if it can meet my expectation of Argentine Malbec's and also $115+ shipping.

Well the shipping cost was just about the same as the cost of the kit, but to my surprise my LHBS had it for $130. (Man I am so glad my drinking buddy bought the place and run's it right).
So today I picked up a beer recipe and the kit, read through the instructions and may I just say things have improved in the last 15 years since I last tried making a wine.
I'm thinking I can ferment it in my old ale pale with a blow off tube, and rack it to my primary carboy for secondary.
I just hope it lives up to my expectations of an Argentine Malbec.

Might as well share the brew log.
Day three in primary, I have been degassing everyday and kept it at 62F air temp, fermentation temp has been at 65F. It's been slower in fermentation, but I want the taste to be the grapes and not the yeast esters.
Took a SG reading today and it is at 1.042, Bucket strip was right at 65F.
I just upped the fridge temperature to 68F. (I had an Ale fermenting also on day three so now I'll slowly step up to 70F to get this sucker in mid-range.)
Tasting the sample afterwards was NICE. Even yeasty, still sweet I could taste what I love about Malbec's.
I just want to keep my expectations low just too save myself from disappointment, but that was really nice.
Note to self, I need some more wide red / champagne glasses.

Since I'm doing a little brew log here to document my return to making wines.
20091014 Temp at 76F, left the power off by mistake.
Since it was warm, degassed, SG 1.005,
Sample - oh the flavour is coming out.

Set again for 72F. Target Rack to secondary on Friday.
I don't want to loose my large glass carboy for two weeks, so I will rack to the carboy, and rack back to the bucket after cleaning and sanitizing.
I also think it will be easier to make additions and stir in the bucket since I don't have those high speed low drag drill attached stirrers.
Now I just need to free a keg, to free a 5 gallon carboy, to rack my C5C beer into secondary, to free the large carboy to do this racking and make my next beer. I'm thinking a red headed ..........

Well, made it through stage three with no major issues yet.
Stage 2 per Instructions.
20091016 Racked to secondary, SG 0.998 or so.
Tasting good. In fridge at 62F. Waiting.
20091020 Upped temp to 70F, reduce gas retention.

All I can say is if this taste as good as I think it will, this will be well worth the cost, time and effort to make.
Not that it is that hard, it just takes time.
I don't know if people have mentioned it a lot but I'm impressed with these new wine kits. They come with all the ingredients needed, good instructions, and the quality is well worth the money.

One quick question, once I move it into the bright tank in around a week, is temperature control important? My apartment can get up to the low 80's during the day. I would not want to mess this up.
Is wine like a beer in that long term ageing the temperature is not really important?

Bottled this baby today, along with a batch of mead, and a batch of cider.
Tasted pretty good, but I'm hoping the flavour will come out after ageing for six months or so. Hopefully it will age very well, I would like to keep a few bottles around for a year or so.
I don't really enjoy bottling so I tried to do them all at once along with some kegging of beers. Now I have far too many empty carboys so I started up a dry Mead.